Are you a control freak? In life, controlling manageable circumstances is a good thing, otherwise you won't accomplish anything at all. However, when you start to control situations beyond human reach, that's when you begin to feel burdened, or even stressed. Feedback from family, friends, and foes alike will include the word "uptight". It describes not your bottom, but your abdomen. Good news... there is one easy fix: it's controlling your breathing. In a society that puts too much emphasis on flat, six-pack abs, we've been taught to pull our bellies in and push our chests out. This bad habit restricts the diaphragm, minimizes the full intake of air, and deprives the brain of oxygen- all snowballing into a tensed feeling. Rather than focusing on a supermodel look, break the vicious cycle of shallow breathing by letting your belly expand and contract. No wonder some Miss Universe contestants, while sucking in their bellies tightly, stammer after the final question and self-consciously answer "world peace".
In singing, the concept is similar. The chest remains stationary. It's the bellows-like movement of the abs that powers the voice. When taking deep inhalations to relax, slowly breathe through your nose to humidify the air and to allow the oxygen to be absorbed. Exhale slowly through pursed lips to prevent too much carbon dioxide from escaping. Surround yourself with fun people, or read comical stories to ignite a belly laugh. Giggle, and let your belly jiggle. Form the habits of belly-breathing and belly-laughing. Both are very good for you.

There was a moment when a Harley dude like me felt like a fool. It was after watching a movie feature about Ducati of Italy. From its mountainous birthplace of Bologna to pancake-flat Venice, I eyed one glide serpentine roads. Instantly, I felt a rush! My racing instincts were aroused. With my heart beating harder and faster, my head ached as I thought if I needed one. I knew I wanted one.
As time flew by, and the adrenalin dissipated, I gave my undivided attention to "Aeolian", my 1200 cc glacial-white pearl Sportster. Like most Harley Davidsons, it was born from the Dorothy and Toto's state, but conceived in Milwaukee, WI. Aeolus is the Greek god of winds, hence the visionary name Aeolian that "dances with the wind".
Aeolian and I have had some exhilarating adventures here in the US. The road trip from Danbury, WI to Oshkosh, WI afforded us the vistas of the last ice-age (Wisconsinan) terrain and the workings of anvil-capped summer thunderstorms. The spectacular air show in Oshkosh was a treat far better than a pina colada malt. Another trip was a ride for a cause for my nephew David. The 3000-mile round journey from Minneapolis, MN to Savannah, GA will be remembered for the cause itself, aside from the bone-chilling and drenching rain in Cincinatti, OH, fragrant white wildflowers of the Appalachians, and pelting hailstorm in Macon, GA.
Well, just come to think of it. As I write about the spirit of adventure embodied in the Harley trips, I become less torn between the two-wheelers. The feeling like a fool is replaced by feeling like a champ. Ducati, I will test-ride you someday. But Harley, my loyalty remains to you.

Mazatlan is Toltec or Aztec for "a place near an abundance of deer". So far, I haven't seen any brown ungulates roaming the bustling tropical downtown- not even a roadkill. My kudos goes to the locals who immortalized this city icon by sculpting a bronze eight-point buck, noticeably smaller than a Wisconsin deer. This monument sits near a natural lagoon that empties into the Sea of Cortez, a place conducive for the white-tailed ruminants that longeth for water, to drink.

Growing a talent is not easy. If it were second nature, everybody will be contenders in the Olympics, Carnegie Hall, or Fermi Lab. But it gets easier to home-grow a talent when we examine the leverage- the belief about talents. It is easier to develop one if you believe that talents are mostly a product of perspiration, not solely a "god-given gift". It is a result of years of cumulative effort, getting feedback along the course. It is the stretching, or the pushing to the limit that hones talent. Discipline is required to develop it, persistence to sustain it, and passion to boost it. Now, what kind of talent do you want to develop? Explore within. Once you've nailed down your goal, put in the hours and work at it. Invite expert mentors to give you feedback, for we are not our own best judges. Deliberately and properly practice. If you've plateaued, just cruising and having fun, you're not improving. You have got to sweat, literally, and figuratively.

It is that stressful time of the year, when we feel like falling off the edge of the cliff of 2009. Whether you have managed to keep the molehill to its rightful size, or let it blow up to the size of Everest, there is a common cure to stress. Toxic stress is a build up of body chemicals in response to a fight or flight situation. In this age of too much information (TMI), too much expectations (TME), and too much caffeine (TMC), the feeling can become disconcerting, even overwhelming! Time is the common cure for this. Allow your body to metabolize the powerful chemicals, which if left to escalate, can muddle your thinking. Get some days off, or even hours off. When you snooze, you don't lose. Actually you win, big time.

Few places on the blue globe conjure up latitude markers. They are as unique as one's wiring of the brain. As for me, Minneapolis (where I live) is conveniently 45 degrees North, halfway between Ecuador and the North Pole near glacier-capped Greenland. No wonder the Twin Cities get the Siberian cold climate in the latter part of the year. The island-studded Lake of the Woods of Minnesota, excellent for walleye fishing, makes the midsection of the parallel 49 border between USA and Canada crooked. Both Taiwan, north of the Philippines and Mazatlan are Tropic of Cancer markers, 23.5 degrees North. I have yet to travel to Patagonia, Australia, and New Zealand to get symmetrical representations on the lower half of the planet.

"We think 50,000 thoughts a day". That's roughly a thought a second. It's a lot! By imagining the sheer volume, it becomes easier to gauge the effect that thoughts can impose on emotion . As for me, I choose to keep most of the thoughts positive. Because it's harder to sustain the positivism, to resort to neutral thinking is the alternative. Avoid negative thinking, the mind's natural default. Perhaps it's easier to do, but avoid this tendency. When negative thoughts creep up, replace them with positive or neutral ones. To paraphrase, recognize negative thoughts, and then move on. Too much effort converting the nature of thoughts can bite you back.

2009 is drawing near its end. It's that time to dig up resolutions that had been decaying underground. Get rid of the stench by coming up with a refreshed mindset that would greet 2010. "Twenty-one" is the magic number for forming habits. I remember a music book instructing the reader to sing a particular song in public only after rehearsing it 21x flawlessly. If you make a mistake, you have to go back to square one. Similarly, a book on self-help advises- "if you do it daily for three weeks...." There were more articles I went over that suggested the 21x rule of thumb. I, myself, will keep a log of my four revived resolutions: first, I will get up as soon as the alarm beeps (not allowed to hit the snooze button anymore); second, I will drink less than two cups of coffee daily; third, I will drink less than two bottles of beer daily; and fourth, I will hit the gym twice a week (the third one is a bonus). If I stick to just these four resolutions, they will be ingrained as predicted. By making new habits, I will be kicking habits.

What's the logic behind "Explore More"? Simple. It reflects my personal philosophy of living. In order to experience an optimal life one has to keep on exploring! The brain craves to form dendritic branches, that is, neurons love to socialize, to connect. The fatty cables of the nerves hunger for more insulation, wrapped around like tree rings. Learning is a by-product of exploring. How one explores is a matter of choice. It is also a matter of creativity. Engage all your senses. Explore More.

What does it take to become an expert? Numerous articles proclaim that given an average intelligence and aptitude, one becomes an expert after putting in “10,000 hours” in an area passionate about. Had Pilot Sullenberger flown less than the “rule of thumb” one hundred-hundred hours, he would have landed the airplane differently. You may intuitively know this from your experience. At work, you must have felt an expert after roughly 5 years. How did I come up with that magic number? A year’s 52 weeks minus 8 vacation weeks, multiplied by a 40-hour week is divided from 10,000. I took away the 0.7 from the 5.7 years to credit the training phase.- Now that we have explored one of the ingredients of expertise, let me leave you with this question. What do you want to learn next? Life is not infinite, you know.

What's the stuff of thought? Today, as I gallivanted from Barnes & Noble to a nearby Borders in Minneapolis, I browsed a hodgepodge of books. The vocabulary books' prefaces unanimously emphasized "words" as the "stuff of thought". Convinced, I bought a pocket-sized one in an attempt to broaden my verbal language. To digress, being bilingual compels me to memorize words with conviction. Instead of thinking in Filipino, I think in English more consistently to improve my acquisition of new words. However, the popular view of words as the stuff of thought is biased. Numbers are also the stuff of thought. More precisely, symbols are the stuff of thought. Letters and numbers are symbols. Here is where Mathematics creeps into the equation. Aside from increasing vocabulary, reviewing Algebraic signs and laws will definitely make thoughts multidimensional and deep. Marry symbolic and verbal languages.- Go on, delve into Mathematics, too. Start exploring the shallows of Basic Arithmetic reaching down the trench of Calculus.

Can the "hippocampus" be hijacked? Yes, it can. The hippocampus that plays a crucial role in learning can be short-circuited by intense emotion that's either ecstatically high or painfully low. But I'm not going to discuss the outliers of memory formation today.

The mind's slate can hold on an average of up to "7" thoughts, ideas, chunks, symbols, etc. That's the magic number - "7". When we perceive something, it takes "2" seconds (sensory memory) to register. Again, our short term memory, akin to the mind's slate can hang onto the 7 things we talked about. We then can use logic to either retain those stuff of thought, or jettison them. Otherwise, when we repeat those items, they will transfer into the realm of long term memory that is more than "20" seconds up to 20 minutes, 20 hours, 20 days, 20 months, 20 years, even protract to a lifespan. When something feels icky, ignore it. When you squabble, don't go around telling people about it. Do not replay it like a movie in your mind, neither- otherwise you will prolong the agony. The good side of the coin is, when you like to memorize useful information, you can try to remember by repetition. To remember something sweet, repeat, repeat, and then repeat.

If you have any comments, suggestions, reactions, or just a friendly message, please feel free to email me at kdmann71@yahoo.com.